Wound dressings should preferably absorb exudate from lesions without adhering to wound surfaces or floating away from the wound surface. Adhesion problems can occur when the wound has dried out due to the lack of production of exudate. Attempts to remove the dressing will result in disturbance of the newly forming layer of the skin over the wound and hence wound healing is delayed. The problem of dressings that float away from exuding lesions typically occurs when the wound produces particularly large volumes of exudate. Solutions to such problems involve, for example, using a continuous layer that retards the rate of loss of water, thereby preventing adhesion of the dressing to the wound, or providing the dressing with holes so that the exudate can pass through the holes to an absorbent, thereby keeping the dressing in contact with the wound.
It is desirable for effective wound healing to have wound dressings that do not allow the wound to dry out completely and that do not allow exudate to pool. Thus, a breathable wound dressing is desired that can absorb exudate, but not allow the wound to dry out. There are known wound dressings that include foams that attempt to address these problems; however, these dressings can have problems with breathability and with swelling of the foam, which can place pressure on the wound, or alternatively, with poor absorption of exudate.
Thus, many of the known wound dressings are not free of disadvantages since what may be an excellent dressing for one kind of wound will be unsuitable for many other wounds because of the differences in the output of exudate. Thus, additional wound dressings are still needed that are suitable for use on a number of different wound types.